Sailing Vessels Brought Character To Area

Reflections

Sailing vessels brought the first colonists to the New World and continued to transport commodities for centuries.

Gradually, they developed into the great shipping fleets of two-and three-masted vessels culminating in the four-masted ocean-going schooners, the clipper ships noted for their beauty and speed.

``Sailing vessels were an important part of life on the Chesapeake Bay from discovery until they were replaced by power vessels,'' says Lynn Perry, who is retired from the U.S. Navy and living in Urbanna.

``The beauty of these vessels under sail was wonderful. As a small boy growing up in West Point, I became familiar with many of them when they anchored in the York before sailing up the Mattaponi or the Pamunkey. I knew the captains and often went aboard.

``I was fascinated by the rigging, the skill and seamanship required to sail them and the details of life on board. With my box camera I took pictures of many of them. Learning about them became a life-time hobby,'' Perry says.

By the first decades of this century, the steamboat had taken over passenger service and handled some freight, but sailing craft still made up much of the commercial traffic in local waters. Heavy cargoes such as lumber, grain and coal were hauled by schooners, many captained by local men.

In the 1920s, the thriving lumber industry of King and Queen County shipped quantities of rough lumber to Northern markets by way of the Mattaponi River. Vessels could go up the river as far as Ayletts, 33 miles above West Point, taking on cargo at various landings.

The late W.S. Beane of King and Queen Court House, whose father owned two lumber mills, recalled the excitement and activity which surrounded the arrival of the Blackbird, the L. E. Williams or the John R. P. Moore at Melrose or King and Queen Court House Landing.

Captains of these vessels whom Beane recalled were Capt. Lee and Capt. John Insley. Such vessels could carry approximately 125,000 to 150,000 board feet of lumber in their holds and on deck. They would arrive riding high in the water to depart heavily loaded, making their way slowly and majestically down river to enter the York and proceed up the Chesapeake Bay to Baltimore, he says.

Sailing vessels came up the Piankatank as far as Freeport, about 25 miles from its mouth. Stands of cypress timber seldom found this far north grew in great abundance along the Dragon, the name given to the upper length of this stream.

Logs or cut timber were brought down on barges to be loaded at Freeport. Vessels preparing for long voyages were said to have filled their water barrels from the Dragon because the water had medicinal value and kept better than spring water. Trees growing along the banks gave the water a characteristic brown stain from the tannic acid found in the bark.

Schooner traffic in local waters continued until the late 1930s. A familiar sight on the Rappahannock River was the ``Kate H. Tilghman,'' built in 1881 in Maryland. In her last years she was owned and operated by Capt. R.O. Smith Sr. of Urbanna. W.C. Cannon of Urbanna was also master at one time.

She carried freight such as lumber, grain and watermelons. The Tilghman was abandoned in Urbanna Creek in 1944 where a part of her hull is still visible at low tide.

The Gracie Mae was built in 1909 for Capt. Raymond Bristow of Dutton and was used to freight cargoes of grain and lumber. After she was converted to power and renamed the Ruth Conway, two local men served aboard her. Willie Sears of Harcum was mate and Leonard Turner of King and Queen was engineer.

Another schooner that saw service in local waters was the W. J. Mathews owned and operated for a time by the W. J. Marshall Oyster Co. of West Point. She was converted to power in 1934. She was listed as ``abandoned'' in 1969 in ``Merchant Vessels of the United States.''

One of the last schooners to operate in the Piankatank was the Columbia, F.C. acquired by Capt. Tom Henry Ruark in 1946. She remained in use here only two years for Capt. Ruark sold her to a Cuban firm in 1948.

One of the best accounts of life aboard a schooner can be found in ``Harvesting the Chesapeake, Tools and Traditions,'' by Larry S. Chowning. (Tidewater Publishers, Centreville, Md. 1990). The chapter, entitled ``Schooner Captain'' details the reminiscences of Capt. Hugh Norris of Deltaville, now nearing 95, who worked as mate and as captain on some half dozen schooners.

``The Maggie was one of my favorites. She was the fastest of all the boats I worked aboard. Capt. Phil Ruark was her skipper and she carried a three-man crew on the boat,'' Norris says.

``I hated to see the sailboats go but all good things do come to an end, you know,'' says Norris with a resigned shake of his head.

When the pageant of the sailing vessels ended, a colorful part of our past disappeared.